February 21, 2015

Sometimes owning a computer is for the birds {I'm going to do a little venting now. If you're just here for the recipe, scroll down a ways ;-)}.

This morning I sat down at my desk, all ready to write a post about shrimp korma, but instead I ended up spending a couple of hours wrestling with an anti-virus company.

AdAware, I'm looking at you.

I've subscribed with them for two years and both years I had the same problem: I'd give them my $24 for the year, expecting their program to work quietly in the background, protecting by computer from viruses and such. But both years, two weeks after I paid them, I'd start getting all kinds of pop-ups saying my subscription ends TODAY (in ominous all-caps and red bold font) and if I didn't pay up, my computer would be at risk and unprotected. Its virtue would not remain intact. Very bad things would happen. Strange things would be afoot at the Circle K... And okay, they didn't actually say all of those things but whatever. When I'd click on the 'get more info' button, it would ask for another $24. Wonder how many forgetful people get scammed out of $24 over and over and over?

Both times I had to call their customer service line (I hate talking on the phone to begin with but I especially hate talking on the phone regarding computery things) and their obnoxious reps would sweet-talk me at first then would move on to talking over the sound of my voice, trying to tell me I had unnecessary programs running on my computer and that the situation could get 'critical' if I didn't act now. They'd try to weasle $70 out of me to do a four-hour tune-up on my computer. But the 'unnecessary programs' they were pointing out in the list were other anti-virus companies that I occasionally run as a back-up. In other words, they were trying to charge me $70 to eliminate competitors from my computer.

Sigh.

I should have dumped them last year but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought perhaps my bad experience with them was a fluke. Little did I know, I was in for a repeat of the same experience this year.

My blood boiled and I wanted to sail across a sea and stab a certain customer service rep in the eye, but I've since let go of all that anger, I've uninstalled their nasty scammy program, and asked for my money back. They only returned 18 of my 24 dollars. AdAware? I hate you (picture that in all-caps and red and bold). It's ridiculous to subscribe to an anti-virus company in order to ward off scammers, only to have the anti-virus company act like dirty crooks.

This recipe showed up in my inbox awhile back and my first question was, what is korma? I had vague notions but wanted to know for sure. Wikipedia tells me it is many things: Urdu / Turkish / Persian / Indian / Bangladeshi... the common theme appears to be that korma is a delicately-spiced dish of meat or vegetables or fish, braised in stock, and yogurt or cream. The internet tells me it's very popular and very common in England. Readers from England would probably wonder what sort of fool doesn't know what korma is.

Lots of fresh and delicious-looking ingredients ready to go into the pot:

I used these huge spot prawns my husband brings home when he goes deer hunting in the fall on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.

He buys an ice chest full of them from a friend-of-a-friend in Ketchikan. Heaven only knows what they cost. I've never asked him for fear it will interfere with my enjoying the deliciousness of them. We tuck them away in our big chest freezer in the garage and have them every now and then throughout the year.

I've never gone with him on his annual hunting trip but I'm thinking I should go one of these years, if only to stay in this dreamy cabin:

While making the korma, I stuck pretty closely to the original recipe and only made one change -- I substituted sliced zucchini for the peas, just because I had a bunch of nice-looking little zukes in the fridge.

February 08, 2015

Dogs don't care what the weather is like. If they're accustomed to a daily walk, they still want to go for a romp in the woods no matter what: rain, shine, snow, whatever. Some things are sacred. Even today, when it's around 8 degrees and the winds are howling. Walks must be taken, or you risk having a tennis ball thrown at your head repeatedly. And you have to listen to a lot of heavy, indignant sighs heaving out of the sad beast slumped on the floor like a puddle of goo.

And so this afternoon, three people and two dogs bundled up and ventured out into the woods.

One of the highlights was stopping to inspect a huge spruce tree the wind had blown over.

Its top branches were fully-loaded with pinecones.

It was kind of sad and kind of awesome to reach out and touch its top branch, which used to be a mile high in the sky.

It turns out, the dogs were right. Even on bad weather days, I find it's worth it to put on the right clothes and venture out for some fresh air.

It's also nice to come home to something warm and delicious to eat. Like this upside-down pear cake.

I think it's now on my short list of favorite dessert recipes. I found it by accident after buying way too many pears at Costco. Those big bags of fruit are way too much for the two of us to polish off but they're so tempting! And while we'd eaten a lot of them, there were still four or five pears in the fruit bowl on the verge of going mushy. I found this recipe on The Pinterest and I got to work slicing pears and arranging them as artfully as possible in a cake pan.

The house smelled wonderful while this was baking, and the cake flipped out of the pan perfectly (a test of a good upside-down cake recipe), and it looked very pretty. The sugary sauce that collects at the bottom of the pan soaks into the cake after it's flipped, turning it almost custard-y on the top. We ate it for days, warming each slice just slightly in the microwave for 10-15 seconds so it had a nice just-out-of-the-oven warmth to it. So good. It would have been even better with some vanilla ice cream or some fresh whipped cream, but I was too lazy to go to a real store to buy either of those things, so I stopped by a convenience store and got a 5-dollar can of Redi-Whip. It did not detract from the deliciousness of this cake!

I'm kind of hoping my husband will request it for his birthday in a couple of weeks but he keeps mentioning pie instead. I might have to make this again for myself, in addition to his birthday pie.

Combine the four tablespoons of butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small saucepan and heat to boiling, then remove from heat. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Arrange the pears over the butter mixture and press down.

Beat the 6 tablespoons of butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until very smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt, and beat 10 seconds. Pour in the milk and beat just until the batter is evenly moistened, about 1 minute. Pour the batter over the pears, then carefully lift the pan and bang it on the counter once or twice to release any air bubbles.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I put a sheet of foil under the cake pan to catch the pear juices that boiled over while baking. Let cake sit in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes or so to cool slightly.

Run a knife along the outer edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Place a plate over the cake, then flip it over to invert the cake onto the pan. Serve warm or cold, it's up to you.

August 02, 2014

A mixture of kosher salt and brown sugar for dry curing salmon bellies

I can't say that these will be the prettiest food photos I'll ever post, but what smoked salmon bellies lack in looks, they more than make up for in deliciousness. I went dipnetting a few weeks ago and as we filleted our red salmon, I diligently saved bellies for smoking, something I was keen to do after seeing this post on the Hunter Angler Gardener Cook's facebook page (I highly recommend his blog and following him on Facebook and Instagram if you have an interest in hunting, angling, gardening, and cooking).

I have a household of two people (and one dog but she doesn't count in the eyes of the Department of Fish and Game), which means we are allowed 35 dipnetted salmon, which means I came home with alot of fish bellies for smoking. My week of fishing went like is: Monday through Thursday we were dipnetting... we drove home on Friday and my parents and I vacuum-packed all of our salmon for the freezer (leaving out a few fillets to cook up that day, of course, because there's nothing better than fresh salmon on the grill)... and on Saturday I got to work on smoking some fish. This July fishing bonanza is alot of work but it's only a week or two out of the year and I look forward to it all year round, both the dipnetting and filling my freezer with food that will last through the year. Well, almost all year long. I finished last year's salmon in June, a month before I could go and catch some more.

Plus, I get to spend my fishing days on the beach -- not too shabby:

The spoils of our labor -- more red salmon fillets than you can shake a stick at:

I know alot of people feel the same way as I do about dipnetting but there are also many vocal critics who say that dipnetters are greedy and wasteful and that they catch way more fish than they need. I try to be the exception to their sour-puss over-generalizing and I gobble up everything I catch so that I can thumb my nose at those critics.

Salmon bellies, out of the brine and drying on racks on the kitchen table

After I posted some of my fish-smoking photos on Facebook, I had several co-workers come up to me the next day to squeamishly ask which part of the belly I'd smoked. I think they had visions of guts and organs, but no... the belly is a strip of salmon meat that runs along, well, the belly of the salmon. It's fattier and oilier than the side fillets and packed with all of those awesome omega 3's. Many will tell you it's the tastiest part of the salmon and will compare smoked bellies to salmon bacon. While it might be a little tough if you were to cook it the way you would a fillet, it's fantastic when it's smoked.

If you're in need of more info on how to fillet a salmon in such a way that you get the most belly-bang for your buck, here's an excellent discussion on the Alaska Outdoors Supersite, complete with photos. The bellies I brought home still had a couple of fins attached to them. If you're squeamish about the fins, you can cut them off but I just left them on. Once you nibble off the strip of smoked salmon, you're left with a strip of skin with the fins attached.

Salmon bellies out of the brine and drying on racks with a fan pointed at them to speed up the drying process

When I posted the photo above on Facebook, my mom commented to say: "I think you would be a good fish wife." I had to sheepishly admit that I most certainly would not be a good fish wife because I'd accidentally slept till 11 o'clock that morning, something I rarely do, especially not on fish-smoking day. But I must have been exhausted from a week's worth of fishing and fish processing. When my eyes popped open and I looked at the clock, I leapt from bed and made a mad dash for the bathroom and then the kitchen to get to work. The salmon was curing in the fridge overnight and it needed to be rinsed and laid out on racks to dry for a few hours, then smoked for another 6 - 8 hours.

The day before I'd layered the salmon in a mixture of brown sugar and kosher salt and by morning much of the salt and sugar had turned into a slurry.

Some of our bellies looked a little rough around the edges, literally, because we did much of our filleting late at night, in the dark, after a long day of dipnetting, and the cutting tables at our campground had no lightposts and so we filleted by the headlights of our cars.

After letting the salmon bellies brine over night, I rinsed them with cold water.

And then laid them out on racks to dry on my kitchen table with a fan pointed at them to speed up the drying process. Before you put the salmon in the smoker they need to dry out a bit and form a very thin skin called a pellicle, which allows the salmon to soak up the smoke better.

We don't have a fancy smoker, just a Big Chief that, according to the price tag still stuck to the top of it, I got for ten bucks at a thrift store. According to the photo posted at that Big Chief link, it looks like the company has come up with a more politically-correct logo for the front of their smokers. Smoked salmon bellies come with a politically-incorrect nickname of their own: squaw candy. Thankfully, people are phasing out their use of that name.

There are disadvantages to having such a simple smoker. The recipe called for bringing the heat up very slowly and our smoker doesn't have temperature controls. I've used this smoker before but this is the first time my husband has taken an interest in it, and I could hear him out in the garage with a drill making a few modifications. He drilled a hole in the bottom flap where the tray full of woodchips slides in, and he attached a piece of wire so that we could leave that flap open when we wanted to cool the temperature a bit (there's another vent in the top). And he didn't like the oven thermometer I had hanging on an inside rack because you'd have to open the whole front panel to check the temperature and then all the heat would escape. So he drilled another hole in the center of the front panel and popped a digital meat thermometer into the hole for easy-reading.

While he was doing all of that, I was online checking out fancier smokers on Amazon. This one caught my eye. But I don't know... the Big Chief worked so well that maybe I'll stick with it for awhile longer.

While the salmon smoked, I occasionally brushed each piece with some maple syrup to add sweetness to the smokiness.

I didn't smoke my salmon bellies to the point of being jerky, as called for in the recipe. Because I overslept that morning, it was getting late when we took one last look at the bellies, and while they were not smoked to the point of being jerky, they looked and tasted pretty darn good. My husband, my parents, our two dogs, and I gathered around the smoker in my backyard and gave them a taste-test. Smoky and sweet and delicious. Well worth the effort. Ours lasted less than a week in the fridge. My husband and I both took them to work with us and shared with co-workers and they were all polished off in no time. My husband drives a dump truck in the summer and he and his fellow drivers -- messy eaters, apparently -- reported that their steering wheels and the cabs of their trucks smelled like smoked salmon. They were not complaining.

The finished product -- like I said, not the prettiest thing to ever come out of my kitchen but these were tasty enough to make all the effort worth it:

Here's the recipe. I followed the original pretty closely but cut short the smoking time and only brushed maple syrup onto the bellies a few times.

Salmon Candy

Makes about 5 pounds.

Prep Time: 12 hours curing time

Cook Time: 6 hours smoking time

5 pounds skin-on salmon bellies (you an also use salmon collars or fillets cut into strips)

10 ounces of kosher salt

1 pound brown sugar

1 cup maple syrup or birch syrup

Mix the salt and brown sugar together in a bowl. In a plastic or glass container large enough to hold the salmon, sprinkle the bottom with a quarter inch or so of the sugar/salt mixture. Add a layer of salmon with the skin side pointing up. Repeat these layers as many times as needed and make sure the salt/sugar layers are thick enough that the salmon pieces are not touching. Cover and let cure in the fridge, preferably overnight, but for at least 8 hours.

Remove the salmon from the salt/sugar cure and rinse under cold water. Pat dry and lay on a rack skin side down. Allow the salmon to dry for at least 2 hours, preferably with a fan pointed at the racks to speed up the drying process.

Place the salmon on racks in a smoker and slowly bring the temperature up over the course of an hour or so and then let it smoke at 180°F to 225°F for at between 4 - 8 hours, depending on how smoky and jerkied you want your salmon. Every 2 hours or so, paint the salmon with the maple syrup. When the salmon looks and tastes good, have some to celebrate smoking day, and then allow the rest to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. The bellies will last a week or so in the fridge. They also freeze well.

July 27, 2014

Here's a primer on dipnetting for red salmon from the shore of the Kasilof and Kenai Rivers. Think of it as Dipnetting 101, or Dipnetting for Dummies, but keep in mind that everyone has their own ideas on how to do it best. I like to listen to newbies ask for advice and then get a different opinion from everyone they talk to. This is what works for my family and friends, based on our years of trial and error and experience and stealing ideas from our fellow fishermen. Scroll on down to the bottom for our list of things to bring with you.

First, read all of the regulations so that you can show up on the beach informed and educated and ready to dipnet lawfully and to respect the resource you want to fill your freezer with. Information and regulations on the Kenai River can be found here and info on the Kasilof is here. Take a copy of the regulations with you to the river because questions will likely come up.

Look for any special regulations and restrictions in effect -- for instance, this year you can't keep any king salmon you happen to catch in your net because there's a shortage of them and the state is struggling to recover the population. Dipnetting a king salmon is rare, but I was struck by king salmon lightning this year. I pulled in a whale of a king and when everyone on the crowded beach got a look at it, they erupted into a cacaphony of cheering and yelling. That fish was huge and its silver body glittered in the sun and it was really, really hard to let it go. Half of the shouting on-lookers were law-abiding fisherfolk and they were yelling at me to let it go. The other half were yelling at me to keep it. I was the stuff of legend that day, my friends. People who stopped to chat with us later all mentioned that a gal caught a king salmon that day. And I'd nod and stab myself in the chest with one finger and declare: "That was ME!" And their eyes would bulge and they'd say: "That was YOU?" and "Aw man, that was a good-looking fish." and "I would have kept it."

My parents in the water:

In order to dipnet, you have to be an Alaska resident and you need to get a resident sportfish license. They cost $24 this year for the average person (there are deals for seniors, the disabled, and those with a low income). And you need a dipnetting permit, which is a white postcard. It's free. Ask for the one for dipnetting in the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers. There's a different permit for dipnetting in the Copper and Chitina Rivers. I would advise you to start looking for the permit card early because sometimes it's a challenge to find them. Don't wait till the last minute to get one. A surefire place to get one is at the Department of Fish and Game office on Raspberry Road. Instructions on how to fill out the permit are posted here. I won't go into all the details on filling out the card because they're clearly stated at that link. In a nutshell: clip the corners of each fish's tail fins and be sure to write down what you caught and where before you conceal the fish from plain sight (for instance, putting them in an icechest) or transport the fish. Put your license, permit, and driver's license in a ziploc bag and stick it in a zippered pocket where it won't fall out and keep it with you the whole time you're fishing.

Next, get a dipnet. Costco is a popular place to get them and they cost around $120. Three Bears has them too, and they have some with a long handle and some with shorter handles and smaller nets. It's kind of an expensive undertaking the first time you do it, but hopefully you'll be using that net for years to come. Large zip-ties work great for fastening your net securely to the roof-rack of your vehicle. Remember to bring a bunch more zip-ties for re-fastening the nets after you're done fishing. Here's a handy tip for keeping your net from getting tangled in everything: my friend Wendy came up with the genius idea of wrapping them in a twin-size fitted sheet. The elasticized sheet creates a sort of a net-cozy. We loved it, especially seen as how we transported our nets in the bed of her pickup along with all of our other gear. The net-cozy kept the nets from snagging on everything else in the back of the truck.

Brush up on your salmon filleting skills. There are lots of you tube videos to watch and lots of different ways to fillet a fish. My favorite way is something like this. That way you don't have to head or gut the fish. Some people just gut their salmon on the beach and fillet them later. If you do this, you can also take them to a fish processor who will fillet and process them for you, but we do it all ourselves in order to save money. Practice makes perfect when it comes to filleting fish - it's pretty easy once you fillet a dozen or so of them and get the hang of it. It's best to get as much of the flesh off the fish as you possibly can so that you're not wasteful. I trim off all of the small pieces and keep them in a separate ziploc bag - it adds up to alot of fish by the time you're done. I also kept all of the salmon bellies and I smoked them today -- I'll do up a post on those soon. While we were filleting some of our fish on the beach, a guy came over and asked if he could have the heads to make fishhead soup. We were happy to oblige. If you have a friend with chickens, chickens love to pick the carcasses clean. Skeletons can also be boiled to make fish broth. If you're interested in using up every part of the salmon you catch, do some research beforehand and read up on articles such as this one.

Take a buddy! Here I am pulling in a fish on the Kenai River with my friend Nikole right behind me:

Dipnetting is hard and it's even harder if you're doing it solo. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's awfully nice to have a buddy when you, for instance, net a fish and it's tangled in the net in such a way that it will take you ten minutes to puzzle out how to extricate it from the net. While you're busy doing that, it's awfully nice to have someone by your side holding onto your net and their own net because nothing sucks quite like dropping a net to the bottom of the river.

Decide whether you want to go to the Kenai or the Kasilof, or give both a try. The fish are bigger on the Kenai but it tends to be a little more crowded there. There are fees to park and camp on the beach of the Kenai. This year a daily parking pass cost $20. However, parking and camping is free at the Kasilof and, as a result, a crazy gypsy village of trailers and tents forms near Kasilof beach and it makes for really interesting people-watching. I've found that everyone is very friendly and helpful at both beaches. We tend to spend most of our time at the Kasilof. Even though the fish are smaller, things tend to be a little more laidback there and because we try to do our fishing on the cheap, the free parking appeals to us. Also, both rivers have two different shores. I've always stuck with north shore of the Kasilof and the south shore of the Kenai.

We don't camp on the beach though. We like to stay at the Diamond M Ranch because it's located close to both beaches and they have showers and fish-cleaning tables - very nice to come back to after a day of standing in the cold water! They have rooms and cabins to rent and an RV lot, but we like to camp in their cow pasture, which is $50 a night. The ranch is an interesting place to wander around. The family that runs it has homesteaded the land for three generations. Lots to see and there's a trail that goes down to the Kenai River. In past years, we would drive down for just the day and head back to Anchorage after a long day of fishing but that's really exhausting. This time we decided to stay for four days and it was a much more pleasant experience.

Sometimes there are llamas roaming the cow pasture. Here's Riley checking one out:

The next thing to keep in mind: to access most of the beaches, you'll need a four-wheel drive vehicle capable of driving on soft and deep beach sand. I suppose you could park on the road and walk to the beach, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a long walk and you'll be carrying lots of heavy stuff. If you don't have a four-wheel drive vehicle you can try parking in the lot on the north shore of the Kenai -- I think it's just a short walk from the lot to the beach but I've never checked it out.

Next, decide when you want to go dipnetting. Check the fish count data posted at the Department of Fish and Game website to see when the fish hit their peak. Then once you choose a day to fish, consult a tide schedule for the Kenai area to see when high tide and low tide will happen. Lots of people say that it's best to fish the outgoing tide at the Kenai River, and the incoming tide at the Kasilof. I've found that to be mostly true, although alot depends on how many fish happen to be surging into the river on the day you're there. And on certain days, commercial fishermen are allowed to fish and their nets catch alot of the fish that would otherwise end up in dipnets. It's kind of a bummer to dipnet on a day that the commercial set-netters are out.

The most important rule: BE COURTEOUS while you're dipnetting, both to other dipnetters on the beach and particularly to people you meet out and about in the towns of Kenai and Soldotna. You and all the other dipnetters are raiding and invading their quiet little towns for a month or so and that wears on them. Seriously: they kind of hate you, hence my title, Tips of Dips. That's what they call us. Dips. So remember: smile, apologize, step out of the way, and be extra-specially courteous to everyone you meet.

Other than that: get out there and get your net in the water! There's really no skill or talent involved, the way there is with fishing with a rod and reel. Just put your net out there and see what happens. There will always be a lucky person in any group of dipnetters. They'll pull in one fish after another and make everyone around them want to tear their hair out. They're not doing anything different. Plain and simple, they just have the lucky net.

Lastly, remember this: no one likes a crybaby. Prepare to get wet and cold and tired. Fortunately, I've always had really good luck with the weather on the days I've gone dipnetting. Although there have been a couple of times we've pulled up to the Kenai River, taken one look at the angry waves crashing over the one or two men brave enought to brave the water, and we've said: NOPE! And we drove away. Last week it was warm and sunny the four days I dipnetted and I'm still sporting a sunglasses-tan on my face, in spite of all the sunscreen I applied. Luckily, there are two rivers to check out and they're pretty close to each other. If the Kenai beach is getting blasted with waves, go check out the Kasilof, although that would mean you just paid the $20 parking fee for nothing.

I hope you find this post helpful. If you have things to add to this post, or if you see anything I'm doing wrong, please let me know in the comments section. Thanks!

Here's our list of things to bring along with more advice on why each thing comes in handy:

Chest waders - two pairs if you have them, in case you forget to hang them to dry at night or in case one pair fills with water (tip: don't fill them with water) (it super-sucks).

Lots of layers of quick-dry clothing. Do yourself a favor and put on long underwear and thick socks even if it's a warm, sunny day. After an hour in the water, you'll start to get cold and who wants to quit fishing just because you're cold?

Toe warmer packets. Trust me.

A hooded raincoat - two if you have them. How to get dressed: put on all your layered clothing and socks, then your waders, then your raincoat on top of your waders. This will keep water from sloshing into your waders if you get hit by a wave or if you get a little too excited about dipnetting and wade in too deep.

Hats and gloves - a stocking cap is good for when you get really cold. Otherwise, wear a wide-brimmed hat to shield your face and eyes from the sun.

Knives in sheaves - it's very important to keep the knives stored safely in a sheaf because nothing will ruin your day of fishing like reaching into a box of supplies and cutting off a finger. Which brings me to:

Bandaids, neosporin, first aid kit, etc.

A knife sharpener. There's lots of different kinds but I'm fond of this one I got at Sportsman's Warehouse a few years ago:

It's quick and easy to use. I sharpen my rinsed-off knife after each fish I fillet, giving the knife 5 or 6 swipes on the coarse edge and 5 or 6 more swipes on the fine edge.

Old rags and towels for wiping your hands

A couple of tubs for rinsing and storing fillets.

A big jug of water with a spigot you can turn on and off for rinsing fish and washing your hands. These are so nice - it's almost like having running water.

Dipnet, of course.

Fitted twin-sized sheets for wrapping around the nets.

A fish bonker. Some people bonk their fish. Others reach a finger into the fish's gills and rip out their red gills to bleed them out. I'm a bonker, myself.

A fish stringer to wear around your waist along with your bonker. The stringer is very important for when you're fishing an outgoing tide. It's so much easier to string fish as you catch them and keep on fishing rather than slogging through the mud back to the beach every time.

A big bucket. If you're fishing the high tide you can put your fish in the bucket. Get one with a lid because the fish will attract hungry seagulls.

A plastic sled for sliding fish along the sand and mud.

Some fishing line for repairing nets. They get holes in them quite often (those salmon teeth are sharp) so be prepared to do some repair work. Read up on how to repair a net beforehand.

Shears or scissors for clipping tail fins.

A piece of burlap or an astroturf mat. Lay the fish on one of these when you fillet it to keep it from sliding around in all its slime.

Big scrubrush to clean your fish mat and tubs.

A metal ironing board without the cover. There are lots of different tables you can bring along to fillet fish on but an old ironing board is the best because it's really tall and you don't have to stoop over it. Watch for one at a thrift store to get it cheap.

Camp chairs

Firewood and a small grill. It's nice to have a small fire to warm up. And if you bring a grill, you can grill up some fresh salmon right there on the beach.

Handiwipes and hand sanitizer

Sunscreen and lip balm with sunscreen

Sunglasses

Headlamps in case you fish after sunset. It's hard to untangle fish from nets if you can't see anything. Also good for when you're up late filleting fish by headlights.

Toilet paper - those porta-potties are busy and gross.

Gallon-sized ziploc bags to fill with fillets.

Bigger ziploc bags (I think they're five gallon bags and you can get them at Target) to put the gallon bags of fillets in.

Lots of ice and ice chests

Zip-ties if you're using them to fasten your nets to your roof rack.

It's also a good idea to bring along some extra fishing nets in case yours needs to be replaced. And some extra clips that attach the two pieces of the net. Those do sometimes get loose and lost.

Extra sets of car keys. Keys have a way of getting lost in the sand and the chaos of all the stuff you bring along with you. It's a good idea to give one of your sets to your fishing buddy so that all of your spare sets aren't inside your truck when you lock yourself out. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

April 02, 2014

I thought it would be fun for me and my two friends, Nikole and Wendy, to sign up for a college class (five-nights + one Saturday field trip) on organic gardening from a woman who sells composting worms and does medicine drumming and 'chakra gardening.' But then I received the syllabus and it freaked me right the hell out. It was like I'd signed up for grad school: oral and written exams, frequent quizzes, homework and research, final exam, garden plan, and class participation a must; no unexcused absences, no tardiness, no plagiarism or cheating....

I think I might be too old for this.

Nonetheless, I told Nikole I was gonna get a better grade than her. But she said, "I think there's math involved, Molly." And I think I detected a note of condescension in her voice. She knows me and my (lack of) math skills all too well.

But it's been going well. We've taken two classes so far. There was a quiz given in our second class, but the instructor didn't collect them or grade them. Instead we discussed the answers in class. Whew.

Seeds have been purchased... Some have been planted indoors... I've got a first draft of my garden plan done...

Here I am, soaking some seeds yesterday morning, to kick-start them and get them to germinate a little faster. I soaked two types of peas, some swiss chard, and two types of beets.

Now all we need is some warm weather so we can do some actual gardening. Alas, here in my part of Alaska, you don't put things in the ground until around Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, so I've got some time on my hands to do some garden planning.

Garden planning and cooking!

Here's a lovely little stew that's made with red lentils and coconut milk and curry. I found it on a blog called Wild Greens and Sardines and it is delicious. This recipe makes quite a bit. I enjoyed the leftovers for days afterwards and I put a couple of small bowls of it in the freezer for later. I did not complain.